Accidental Goddess
| Title: | An Accidental Goddess |
| Author: | Megan Sybil Baker |
| Genre: | Science-Fantasy |
| Ranking: | Okay |
| LibraryThing: | Title:Accidental Goddess |
| Read: | 2004-02-27 |
Raheiran Special Forces captain Gillaine Davré has just woken up in some unknown space way station, wondering where the last three hundred years have gone. The last thing she remembers is her ship being attacked. Now it seems that while she was time-traveling, she was ordained a goddess.... Gillaine's only hope of survival rests with dangerously seductive Admiral Mack Makarian, who suspects her of being a smuggler -- or worse. But he can't begin to imagine the full extent of it. For Gillaine is now Lady Kiasidira, holy icon to countless believers, including Mack -- a man who inspires feelings in her that are far from saintly... feelings she knows are mutual. But when their flirtation is interrupted by a treacherous enemy from the past, Gillaine's secret -- and secret desires -- could destroy them both....
Thoughts on First Read (2004-02-27)
Got another Amazon parcel yesterday and foolishly dropped everything and read it -- until 4am. It was "An Accidental Goddess" by Megan Sybil Baker.
Positives:
- It had an interesting premise (woman + ship get caught in timewarp, emerge to find that she's been deified) and the implications of that were reasonably followed through, with some amusing misunderstandings arising also
- It kept me hooked enough to keep reading until I finished it; there were plenty of things going on, not just a romance
- It has a prettyish cover, though obviously computer-generated; the rendering of the heroine was good, but the hero was too blocky
Negatives:
- The romance was half lust-at-first-sight, but at least it wasn't just focused on getting them into bed together, though it did get them into bed with each other, though at least he proposed first, though unfortunately she hadn't said yes, though fortunately there was at least some relational angst and misunderstanding and apology and reconciliation and not just lust. Am I only ever going to get the romances I want by reading Georgette Heyer, Jane Austen and Gillian Bradshaw? I mean, romances where the order is philia or agape, and then eros?
- The mix of magic and science was just there, though that could be partly because this is apparently a sequel and maybe the setup was all done in the first book. I wouldn't call it a sequel exactly; from what I've found out of the first book "Wintertide", it's just set in the same universe, and what's more, this is supposedly hundreds or thousands of years later, so they would resemble each other even less.
Overall: has potential. Or maybe I would say "good try". Sort of like a bas-relief instead of something fully three-dimensional. If she'd just gone that little bit further with her world-building, with her characters... as it is, the magic feels generic (even if it isn't), the romance feels generic, the scenario is interesting but could have been treated with more depth, the world-building has some good touches but could have done with more vividness/depth; maybe she just needs a good editor.
Am I going to read it again? Not sure.
(Originally at my livejournal)
Thoughts on Re-Read
I had decided to give the book away, but then I borrowed it back because I felt like reading it again, because I'd remembered the good bits, and forgotten the bad bits.
What I would say is that it is a 50% good book, and a 50% mediocre book. Certain aspects of it are great - the world-building, the tiny touches like the parrots and the fashions, the whole idea of someone being gone, assumed dead, for hundreds of years and then discovering that they've been deified in their absence - all that is good. Other aspects are very paint-by-numbers - the station master who slept her way to the top, the cheeky telepathic AI, shallow character motivations, generic "crystal" magic - it makes for a frustrating read, because it could have been better.